DEFOE AND STERNE

In the eighteenth century, traveling became an ever more popular way for British subjects to encounter other countries. At the same time, reports, diaries, and treatises frequently reflected the extent to which the travelers' sympathetic fellow-feeling might actually be menaced by cross-cultural challenges. Laurence Sterne's novels form no exception in this regard. What makes the transnational experiences of some of his characters in France quite distinct, however, is the surprising fact that they start making promises when their sympathy seems put to the test. This is indeed surprising, because at the time, sympathy was generally considered a natural impulse, and promises ritual artifices. In such volatile situations, Sterne usually suggests some sort of a breakdown of civility. A sense of crisis calls for equitable justice. Obviously, the sentimental traveler is seeking to supply sympathy with the very transnational legitimation that national (French) law seems to deny it.

To emphasize the impact of legal pressures on sentimental personalities in such situations, Sterne generally focuses on the threat of impending confinement. In doing so, he can more effectively investigate the legal and sentimental aspects of what a “death of civility” may mean to British travelers.